A New Architecture for Functional Grammar (Functional by J. Lachlan Mackenzie, María de los Ángeles Gómez-González

By J. Lachlan Mackenzie, María de los Ángeles Gómez-González

This quantity makes an attempt to supply a brand new structure for useful grammar, bringing jointly many modern discoveries. In a center article through Kees Hengeveld, a history is given to a dozen contributions by means of a global array of students, every one of whom extra develops the version in his or her personal specialty. the quantity concludes with an epilogue through Hengeveld, within which he attracts jointly a number of the strands right into a united idea.

Structuring experience explores the adaptation among phrases although outlined and buildings notwithstanding developed. It units out to illustrate over 3 volumes, of which this is often the 1st, that the reason of linguistic competence can be shifted from lexical access to syntactic constitution, from reminiscence of phrases to manipulation of ideas.

Ranging from the placement recursive concept of fact is principal to a idea of that means, this ebook investigates the issues adverbs pose for systematic semantics. Barry Taylor argues that the hitherto promising "predicate modifier" process fails to deal with the extra sophisticated difficulties of adverbial constitution and that Donald Davidson's substitute - to construe adverbs as adjectives on occasions - can merely paintings inside of a metaphysical concept of the character of occasions.

Additional info for A New Architecture for Functional Grammar (Functional Grammar Series)

Example text

Firstly, the expression layer indicates the referential unity of the three utterances: in each the Speaker refers to Mr Smith. Secondly, the interpersonal layer can represent grammaticalized pragmatic differences if need be. Thus for sentence (b) we could argue that the speaker intends both to refer and to draw attention to what he is referring to, written formally as RFoc. Thirdly, the semantic, or intrinsic definiteness of ‘Mr Smith’ is shown in all three utterances in the representational layer, avoiding the dilemma that A grumpy Mr Smith… poses for FG1-3.

These two basic meanings of ‘functional’ appear in all of Dik’s writings. Of more interest is Dik’s criticism of the Prague School’s theme-rheme analysis. He argues that their analysis is “arrived at impressionistically” and lacks scientific rigour. “In the first place”, he writes, “it is rather misleading to subsume it under syntax and treat it as a part of grammar. Rather, it should be regarded as a phenomenon depending on the interpretation of the utterance in context and situation and thus already presupposing the grammatical (and the semantic) structure of the utterance.

Therefore, some semantic criterion is necessary to determine this. Dik concludes that “no grammatically relevant element can be found in complete independence of meaning”. Nevertheless, he maintains, “[w]ithout being committed to recognize the exclusive rights to the title of ‘grammar’ claimed for it, one should not underrate the value of the contribution that especially the trans- FG from its inception 27 formational component of generative grammar can make to general linguistic theory” (Dik 1966: 410).